However reports suggest that there are no details on the consequences of interference, nor does it include penalties to deter culprits. There are also other reports that seem to contradict the independence of the commission. It is reported that the Minister of Justice and the minister responsible for Finance will have some responsibilities pertaining to the hiring of staff. This brings the very idea of independence into disrepute, how can an organisation be truly independent when it’s employees are chosen by the government? This reduces transparency and will lead to calls of corruption.

Perhaps the most disturbing piece of the proposed bill is that it appears to grant impunity to any human rights offences that occurred pre 2009.

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Discussion

2 thoughts on “Proposed ‘Human Rights Bill’ in Zimbabwe is a farce.”

It strikes me that this type of agreement is not unique, for instance when the Good Friday agreement was signed it allowed for the early release of prisoners providing that they had stopped any paramilitary actions. There has also been no action by the UK government to start legal processes on the soldiers behind bloody Sunday despite admitting that British troops had illegal killed civilians.
This amnesty helped increase trust and paved the way for an end to the “Troubles” which had been raging for decades. It also created a massive improvement in human rights within Northern Ireland.
It situation in Zimbabwe appears, at least to me, to be very similar to the situation in Northern Ireland and this could be a major step to improving the human rights record in the country.
Essential what I’m getting at is that you seem to be saying that the pursuit of justice is greater than the humanitarian needs of the people.

The are a couple of differences with the situation in Zimbabwe and that in Northern Ireland. Firstly the amnesty technique was used at the end of 1980’s and failed to provide a significant improvement in the human rights situation, opposition to the government is still arbitrarily arrested, the Human Rights Commission itself was attacked by Zanu-PF supporters with the police not offering any protection, and Perence Shiri is an embodiment of someone who has continued to commit crimes with repeated impunity.

I personally feel that justice and humanitarian needs go hand in hand. If a person commits murder 20 years ago it is still murder. Furthermore by acting retrospectively in regards to human rights it has diplomatic benefits. When Serbia captured Mladic, it removed one of the obstacles for them to join the EU (There are many more obstacles before that happens so that’s probably not going to happen any time soon). At the moment the largest foreign investor in Zimbabwe is China who are merely concerned with gaining minerals rather than improving the humanitarian situation. If Zimbabwe seriously start to give indications of justice in regards to the massacres, land seizing and election violence, then a variety of diplomatic and economic prospects will open up. Lest us forget that Zimbabwe was once Africa’s bread basket.